The Mist (2007)

Fog Day Afternoon

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Writer/director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) returns to Stephen King territory with drastically different results. A creepy, mysterious mist and the unseen, dangerous beasties that lurk therein traps several dozen people inside a New England grocery store. With a nod to George A. Romero, the natural leaders emerge, namely a local artist and father (Thomas Jane) and a nerdy, but wise clerk (Toby Jones). But an abrasive religious zealot (Marcia Gay Harden) begins forming her own hierarchy. The film isn't particularly chilling (it eventually explains the creatures' origin) but it provides food for thought with its downright vicious assertion that humans are equally as monstrous as anything supernatural. Darabont gives the material lots of breathing room, though sometimes over-explains his subtexts.